


Fear

by DanjaBlue



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode: s01e10 Et in Arcadia Ego Part 2, Gen, Psychological Drama, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanjaBlue/pseuds/DanjaBlue
Summary: OneShot.  Seven counsels Elnor.  R&R.
Relationships: Elnor & Seven of Nine
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Fear

“You’re the closest thing I have to a friend on this ship,” said Elnor to Seven of Nine. She and Elnor were in Elnor’s quarters on La Sirena.

“What’s this about?” Seven asked.

“I don’t know _WHAT_ to think,” Elnor replied. “One minute, Jean-Luc is dead. The next, he becomes this … _thing._

“My bond with him is severed at death. Now that he’s become this .... _machine_ … I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t have to do this alone,” said Seven.

“I’m concerned that the same person who abandoned me twice is driving that machine.”

“What are the rules regarding abandonment?” Seven asked.

“The bond is severed if he abandons me,” said Elnor.

“Then it seems you have your answer,” said Seven. “Anything you do now is your choice.”

Elnor sighed.

“You’re scared,” said Seven. “You don’t want to go back to him.”

“Yes, I’m scared,” Elnor admitted, bound by the Way of Absolute Candor. “I can’t tell him that, though. 

“What kind of warrior goes into battle frightened out of his mind?”

“How about a sane warrior?” Seven asked. “How about a warrior who possesses a grain of sense?”

“How did _YOU_ do it?” Elnor asked. “How did you survive?”

“It helps to wear two inches of body armor and Borg shielding,” Seven replied dryly. She then added, “The risk was always there, even for _ME._

“I’ve been shot, stabbed, hung upside down from my ankles and beaten to within an inch of my life. I’ve been thrown off more cliffs than I care to remember.

“I’ve fought in snow. I’ve fought in deserts, jungles, swamps, and rain forests. There’s not a whole I haven’t done.

“I once had to pilot Voyager through a radioactive gas cloud all by myself while the crew was in stasis. I had to do the work of sixty people!

“When you’ve been through just about _EVERYTHING_ , what is there left to fear?”

“You have a point,” said Elnor.

“I was assimilated when I was seven years old,” said Seven. “I spent two years in a maturation tank. I was nine years old when I first went into combat.

“Starting out, I was young and stupid. I was nine years old, but I had the body of a grown woman.

“At an age when most children are playing with their toys, _I_ was killing and assimilating.”

“My job is to guard his physical body …” Elnor began.

“He broke that bond when he abandoned you,” said Seven. “He abandoned you inside a Borg cube with three thousand drones.

“Anything you do now with regards to him is _YOUR_ choice. You have to take care of yourself. You’re no good to anyone as a _corpse_.

“You almost seem to have a death wish. How about taking your own advice for once?” 

"What _IS_ my advice?" Elnor asked.

“ ‘Choose to live’,” Seven replied as she parroted Elnor's own pre-battle warning.

“I don’t know how to advise you,” Seven continued. “The last thing I want to do is encourage you to put yourself in a dangerous situation. If anything were to happen to you because of something _I_ said … I don’t know what I’d do. The guilt would be too much for me to bear.”

“How did you do it?” Elnor asked.

“Do _WHAT?_ ”

“What you did all those years … _kill_ ,” Elnor replied. “How did you live among all that … _death?_ ”

Seven sighed. “After you’ve seen the first couple dozen of your ship mates being blown to bits right before your eyes, you learn to become _detached_ ,” she replied. “It was a job. It was my world for eighteen years.”

Elnor hugged Seven and said, “Thank you.”

“Be safe,” Seven replied as she returned his embrace. “I don’t like funerals.”

“Why?”

“I’ve been to too many,” Seven replied.

  
  


THE END

  
  



End file.
